Shifting the Afghan “Great Game”
The obstinate battle cry of the Bush administration in Iraq has now won out in Barack Obama’s plan to "stay the course" in Afghanistan. But none of Afghanistan's regional neighbors, whose vital strategic interests are no less affected than the US by what happens there, is considering a military solution, opting instead for economic engagement and diplomatic alternatives.
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Tel Aviv – So President Barack Obama has decided to “stay the course.” The obstinate battle cry of the Bush administration in Iraq has now won out in Obama’s planned surge of an additional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan. A Taliban victory there, the advocates of the surge had warned, would radicalize the entire region and create a domino effect, with Islamic insurgencies unleashed across Central Asia. Al Qaeda, inextricably entwined with the Taliban, would also claim victory if America had signaled a retreat.